Reading/Watching Log #48

Well, there goes December along with 2019. I have another forthcoming post about the year planned, but for now I'll focus on my usual viewing/reading choices.

It was the year of Aladdin, as I ended up seeing four different versions of it, as well as the arrival of His Dark Materials on television (the final episodes have been released; I'll review them shortly).

There were plenty of books from my favourite authors which have been sitting in my TBR pile for a very long time, including Philip Pullman, Francis Hardinge and Leigh Bardugo, and plenty of mysteries starring plucky young women. I managed to finish a few (okay, two) of the shows that have been on my "finish what you started" list, and continued my viewing of Disney Princess films and Hitchcock's oeuvre.

It's also the year I've made some decisions about the sort of material I'll be consuming in the future... but we'll get to that in good time.

Women of the Year: A Retrospective 2019

In the middle of the year, I has planned to start this annual post by saying 2019 was the year of giving with one hand and taking with the other. Now I'm more inclined to say that 2019 was the year male writers took a long hard piss over the three most iconic female characters of the decade.

Granted, I haven't seen The Rise of Skywalker yet, though my friend was able to break it down for me in great detail, and I've spent the last few days fluctuating between "well that doesn't sound SO bad" and "for the love of God, what the FUCK??"

I was mostly saved by the fact that I have been steadily (even subconsciously) disengaging with Star Wars since The Last Jedi, and the final few trailers for The Rise of Skywalker pretty much sealed the deal. I'll watch it eventually (and perhaps even do a more in-depth review) but that'll be months from now, once the final shreds of investment are gone and the on-line fandom meltdowns have ceased.

But for now a part of me is genuinely hurting, knowing that the brave girl who once snatched a weapon out from under the man who tortured and terrorized her and used it to defend herself against him, is ultimately forced by the sequels to form a quasi-romantic attachment to that self-same man who has spent the better part of this trilogy violently assaulting her both physically and emotionally. It's pretty sick-inducing, even if she IS finally free of him by the end.

All I can do is walk away thinking that at least Rey got off lighter than Black Widow, who joined Gamora at the bottom of a cliff to save Jeremy Renner, or Daenerys Targaryen, who had to be put down like a dog because women can't handle power, strong emotions, heredity madness, or... I dunno, PMS? We may as well throw in ALL the misogynistic cliches.

As of now, I feel utterly wrung out by these big franchises and their complete inability to do right by their female characters. I'll have more to say (or rant) about later, but for now here are the runners-up for women of the month. Pickings were slim, I'm afraid.

The Best and Worst of the 2019 Christchurch Santa Parade

The Santa Parade is an annual event in Christchurch, and I don't think I've missed it once in the past five years. I used to go frequently as a child, and believe it or not, some of the floats I saw as a kid are still going strong all these years later. Now that's staying power!

And the truth is that I just LOVE parades. They were always my favourite part of visiting theme parks in Australia and America, though it's hard to say why exactly they're so appealing to me. Maybe the organized chaos, in which all manner of floats, characters, dancers, animals and miscellany march down a blocked-off street for the enjoyment of the masses.

But a parade that's run largely on volunteers is sure to have its ups and downs: things that are generally innovative and colourful, and things that... aren't so much.

Having taken my niece for the second time, here is the best and worst of the 2019 Christchurch Santa Parade...

His Dark Materials: The Lost Boy

There are actually two lost boys in this episode, though the fact the episode title only references one is a pretty damning indicator of the fact that neither has anything to do with the other.

Yes, this is the episode in which Will Parry, the trilogy's deuteragonist, is properly introduced - a whole book before he's due to turn up if you're reading your way through this story.

And honestly, I can understand why this decision was made. Given that they're working with child actors, it makes sense to get them into the proceedings early before their growth spurts start, and it's clear the screenwriter is trying to build up dual journeys taken by the two children, journeys that will culminate with their meeting in Cittàgazze.

(Of course, by that logic Will should have appeared from the very first episode, but there simply isn't enough material for that to have happened. In The Subtle Knife, he's met Lyra by the middle of the first chapter).

His Dark Materials: Armour

I'm a week behind, with another episode having already aired, but - Lee Scoresby has arrived! Iorek Byrnison has arrived! Serafina Pekkala... has been mentioned! Let's face it, things don't get cracking until these three turn up.

It opens with Lee and his daemon Hester singing with each other on his balloon, and it's just magical. Right there they manage to capture the bond between human and daemon in a way that the previous episodes just couldn't.

And without missing a beat, they dive straight into the exposition, which lands with a heavy clunk. You know, I think this scene will pretty much sum up the show in its entirety: moments of true transcendence side-by-side with leaden info-dumps.

But Lin Manuel Miranda has spoken about what a big fan he is of Pullman's trilogy, and he certainly brings an energy and liveliness to the project that's been missing so far. A bar scene has him fighting with locals while Hester shouts out advice and instructions (which again, portrays the human/daemon bond better than anything we've seen so far) and his motivation grants him a little subplot in which he goes searching for Iorek's armour (even if it doesn't go anywhere).

Though they're characterizing him as a bit more of a con-artist this time around, even a pick-pocket. Eh, I suppose it's not that much of a stretch from what appears in the book.

Woman of the Month: Jacinda Ardern

Jacinda Ardern

I very rarely chose a real woman to be my Woman of the Month, since this is blog is fundamentally about various films, books, television shows and games (see its name). But at the end of 2019, looking back across the course of the year, there's really no one else I'd rather talk about than New Zealand's Prime Minister: Jacinda Ardern.

I voted for Jacinda in the 2017 election, and was elated when she came out on top. She's currently the world's youngest female head of government, and New Zealand's first prime minister to be pregnant while in office.

Although her policies largely focus on child poverty, social inequality and the housing crisis, she's best known on the world stage as the woman who led us through the grief and horror of the Christchurch mosque shootings in March, and her political responses to the tragedy: refusing to speak the gunman's name out loud, personally offering condolences and support to the victims, introducing stricter gun laws, and co-chairing the Christchurch Call summit, which aims to hold tech companies more responsible for the ways in which hate and terrorism is promoted on social media sites.

For the record: she is not perfect. Nobody is. There are plenty of issues here in New Zealand that need attention she has not given them (namely the protests at Ihumātao, which aim to stop a housing development on Māori land) as well as a few ill-advised comments about religious freedom (which should be the freedom to worship in peace, NOT the freedom to persecute others). It's deeply important that political figures are not treated as flawless celebrities.

But she also manages to be openly compassionate and trustworthy in a way that so many politicians simply aren't, and I couldn't help but smile at the teenage girls I overheard at work after Ardern's speech in Hagley Park: "I heard Jacinda speak, and I feel so blessed."

It's been a tough year, not only for Christchurch, not only for New Zealand, but the entire world. Through it all I've been immensely grateful that a woman with intelligence, compassion and empathy has been in the driver's seat.